MS Dhoni suffers defeat on day he becomes IPL's record appearance maker
Teenager Priyam Garg scores maiden IPL fifty as Sunrisers Hyderabad defeat Chennai Super Kings
Saturday 3 October 2020 13:44, UK
MS Dhoni's battling innings on the day he become the IPL's record appearance maker came in vain as Sunrisers Hyderabad beat bottom-placed Chennai Super Kings by seven runs.
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Dhoni (47no off 36) - playing his 194th IPL fixture - brought Chennai back into their chase of 165 from 42-4 in the ninth over, firstly with Ravindra Jadeja (50 off 35) and then Sam Curran (15no off 5).
Chennai required 28 from the final over bowled by 18-year-old leg-spinner Abdul Samad, which became 23 from six after a first-ball wide flew away to the boundary.
However, despite Dhoni - who appeared to be flagging physically - striking Samad's second legal ball for four, the youngster held his nerve, rendering Curran's last-ball six academic.
Another Sunrisers teenager, Priyam Garg (51no off 26) had earlier blasted 77 in seven overs with 20-year-old Abhishek Sharma (31 off 24) as David Warner's men rallied from 69-4.
Garg, who reached his half-century from 23 balls and smashed Curran for four boundaries in a row in the 17th over, propelled Sunrisers to 164-5 after their early struggles, which included Jonny Bairstow being bowled for a third-ball duck by a Shardul Thakur in-swinger.
Chennai were sloppy in the field towards the death - Abhishek dropped twice in as many balls by Jadeja and Thakur in the deep and Garg caught off a Thakur no-ball.
Super Kings were then skittish with the bat - Faf du Plessis (22) the only man in the top four to pass eight before he was run out via a combination of Garg and Bairstow.
Jadeja, whose fifty was his first in T20 cricket, bossed a 72-run stand in 56 balls with Dhoni, while Curran launched the first ball he faced over deep backward square for a humongous six.
Chennai's ask was still an unlikely 44 from two overs but a twist was threatened when Bhuvneshwar Kumar pulled up injured one ball into the penultimate over and Dhoni managed four and six off his replacement Khaleel Ahmed - the four coming after a dreadful misfield by Samad.
Samad redeemed himself in the final over, though, as Sunrisers moved up three spots to fourth in an early table which sees the top six teams all on four points, albeit having played a different number of games.
Sunrisers, who elected to bat, had been reeling when Warner (28) and Kane Williamson (9) fell from successive deliveries at the end of the 11th over
Warner was caught by a juggling Du Plessis on the boundary at long-on, while Williamson was run out after a miscommunication with Garg.
If Garg had been at fault for Williamson's exit, he atoned by striking six fours and a six - his sole maximum coming during that onslaught against Curran in the 17th over.
